BSffi? fflB 1111 aaa Jiffi nutis in tfjHj ■■:> inM ? ' r- . IlB Ellilillilli 5 v::- ! "'^i; vi 1 ■■■■■■- Hln ■III Wfa Htbrarp of tfje ^mbeusttpof Jlortf) Carolina Carnegie Corporation Jf unb for Snstfruttion m lUbrariaratfjip Jt3of tfay\% p e P e 5 ■)1. UNIVERSITY OF N.C. AT CHAPEL HILL 10003058094 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2012 with funding from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill http://www.archive.org/details/jackanapes02ewin Frontispiece— Jackanapes. " * JACKANAPES, IT WON'T DO, YOU AND LOLLO MUST GO ON.' See page 62, rfSa ACKANA with f'LLUSTRATIONS RANDOLPH CALDECOTT ^v/x AAA /V./ WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY J. H. WlLLARD HENRY ALTEMUS COMPANY PHILADELPHIA BY THE SAME AUTHOR The Story of a Short Life 50 Cents Copyright, 1903, by Henry Altemus T Library, Univ. oi North Carolina INTRODUCTION I "TF there is a soul so dead that it does not know 'Jackanapes', let it stop all other reading until that is read. I do not know a better short story." So says one who knows what is good for young people to read ; and the dictum is borne out by the unquestioned popularity of the sturdy, honorable hero of the story. "Jackanapes" made Mrs. E wing's name de- servedly famous, for it not only contains her highest teaching, but is her best piece of literary work. It was not, however, her first "soldier story," for in "The Peace Egg"— now incorpo- rated into this volume, she first began to sing those praises of military life and courtesies which she afterward more fully set forth in "Jackanapes" and "The Story of a Short Life.", INTRODUCTION The secret of the popularity of Mrs. E wing's stories probably lies in her constructive ability. She always had a clear idea of what she was to write. With regard to the introduction of passion into stories, she held that ' ' It was most necessary, but that human feelings are elastic and soon over- strained, and that this kind of ammunition should be sparingly fired, with intervals of refreshment. ' ' One of the most important doctrines she held, and in an extraordinary manner carried out, was, that if a writer could express himself in one word he was not to use two." In the story of "Jackanapes," the captain's child, with his clear blue eyes and mop of yellow curls, is the one important figure. True, there are the doting aunt, the weak-kneed, but faithful Tony, the irascible general, the punctilious postman, the loyal boy-trumpeter, the silent major, and the ever-dear Lollo, but all these life-like figures group around the hero in subordinate positions. In all they say and do and feel they conspire to reflect the glory and beauty of the noble, generous, tender-spirited hero, "Jackanapes." J. H. W. vi ILLUSTRATIONS " ' Jackanapes, it won't do. You and Lollo must go on ' " Frontispiece. " . . . And teach them the goose-step " 13 " ' He has taken her to a Green' " 19 " Under the oak-tree on the Green " 21 " Now he was his own master " . . ^ . . . .27 "Very friendly with Tony Johnson" 31 " During the first round he waved his hat " . . . .35 " ' You should see it in Fair- week, Sir ' " . . . .43 " 'I can make him go,' said Jackanapes" . . . .49 " He and the Postman saluted each other " .... 55 " A Boy Trumpeter, grave beyond his years " . . . .57 " ' Can I do anything else for you?' " 65 " Lollo draws Miss Jessamine slowly up and down " . .71 " Wandering off into the lanes " 73 " She chose the Captain " "The Captain's tenderness never failed " " ' You must n't speak to a sentry on duty ' " "He stood when we were kneeling" "'Oh I'm so sorry'" .... " It was her father, with her child in his arms ' "Walked into church abreast of the Captain " . 78 . 85 . 92 . 98 . 120 . 124 . 127 (vii) JACKANAPES CHAPTER I TWO Donkeys and the Geese lived on the Green, and all other residents of any social standing lived in houses round it. The houses had no names. Everybody's ad- dress was, "The Green," but the Postman and the people of the place knew where each family lived. As to the rest of the world, what has one to. do with the rest of the world, when he is safe at home on his own Goose Green? Moreover, if a stranger did come on any lawful business, he might ask his way at the shop. Most of the inhabitants were long-lived, early deaths (like that of the little Miss Jessamine) being exceptional; and most of the old people were proud of their age, especially the sexton, who 9 JACKANAPES would be ninety-nine come Martinmas, and whose father remembered a man who had carried arrows, as a boy, for the battle of Flodden Field. The Gray Goose and the big Miss Jessamine were the only elderly persons who kept their ages secret. Indeed, Miss Jessamine never mentioned any one 's age, or recalled the exact year in which anything had happened. She said that she had been taught that it was bad manners to do so "in a mixed assembly." The Gray Goose also avoided dates, but this was partly because her brain, though intelligent, was not mathematical, and computation was be- yond her. She never got farther than "last Michaelmas," "the Michaelmas before that," and "the Michaelmas before the Michaelmas be- fore that. ' ' After this her head, which was small, became confused, and she said "Ga, ga!" and changed the subject. But she remembered the little Miss Jessamine, the Miss Jessamine with the "conspicuous" hair. Her aunt, the big Miss Jessamine, said it was her only fault. The hair was clean, was abundant, was glossy, but do what you would with it, it 10 JACKANAPES never looked quite like other people's. And at church, after Saturday night's wash, it shone like the best brass fender after a spring cleaning. In short, it was conspicuous, which does not become a young woman— especially in church. Those were worrying times altogether, and the Green was used for strange purposes. A political meeting was held on it, with the village Cobbler in the chair, and a speaker who came by stage coach from the town, where they had wrecked the bakers' shops and discussed the price of bread. He came a second time, by stage, but the people had heard something about him in the meanwhile, and they did not keep him on the Green. They took him to the pond and tried to make him swim, which he could not do, and the whole affair was very disturbing to all quiet and peaceable fowls. After which another man came and preached sermons on the Green, and a great many people went to hear him; for those were "trying times," and folk ran hither and thither for comfort. And then what did they do but drill the ploughboys on the Green, to get them ready to fight the French, and teach them the ii JACKANAPES goose-step! However, that came to an end at last, for Bony was sent to St. Helena, and the ploughboys were sent back to the plough. Everybody lived in fear of Bony in those days, especially the naughty children, who were kept in order during the day by threats of, "Bony shall have you," and who had nightmares about him in the dark. They thought he was an Ogre in a cocked hat. The Gray Goose thought he was a Fox, and that all the men of England were going out in red coats to hunt him. It was no use to argue the point, for she had a very small head, and when one idea got into it there was no room for another. Besides, the Gray Goose never saw Bony, nor did the children, which rather spoiled the terror of him, so that the Black Captain became more effective as a Bogy with hardened offenders. The Gray Goose remembered his coming to the place perfectly. What he came for she did not pretend to know. It was all part and parcel of the war and bad times. He was called the Black Captain, partly because of himself and partly because of his wonderful black mare. Strange 12 JACKANAPES stories were afloat of how far and how fast that mare could go, when her master's hand was on her mane and he whispered in her ear. Indeed, some people thought we might reckon ourselves AND TEACH THEM THE GOOSE-STEP.' very lucky if we were not out of the frying-pan into the fire, and had not got a certain well- known Gentleman of the Road to protect us against the French. But that, of course, made 13 JACKANAPES him none the less useful to the Johnsons' Nurse, when the little Miss Johnsons were naughty. "You leave off crying this minnit, Miss Jane, or I '11 give you right away to the horrid, wicked officer. Jemima! just look out o' the windy, if you please, and see if the Black Cap'n's a-coming with his horse to carry away Miss Jane. ' ' And there, sure enough, the Black Captain strode by, with his sword clattering as if it did not know whose head to cut off first. But he did not call for Miss Jane that time. He went on to the Green, where he came so suddenly upon the eldest Master Johnson, sitting in a puddle on purpose, in his new nankeen skeleton suit, that the young gentleman thought judgment had over- taken him at last, and abandoned himself to the howlings of despair. His howls were redoubled when he was clutched from behind and swung over the Black Captain's shoulder, but in five minutes his tears were stanched, and he was play- ing with the officer's accoutrements. All of which the Gray Goose saw with her own eyes, and heard afterwards that that bad boy had been whining to go back to the Black Captain ever since, which 14 JACKANAPES showed how hardened he was, and that nobody but Bonaparte himself conld be expected to do him any good. But those were " trying times." It was bad enough when the pickle of a large and respectable family cried for the Black Captain; when it came to the little Miss Jessamine crying for him, one felt that the sooner the French landed and had done with it the better. The big Miss Jessamine's objection to him was that he was a soldier, and this prejudice was shared by all the Green. "A soldier," as the speaker from the town had observed, "is a blood- thirsty, unsettled sort of a rascal ; that the peace- able, home-loving, bread-winning citizen can never conscientiously look on as a brother, till he has beaten his sword into a ploughshare, and his spear into a pruninghook. " On the other hand, there was some truth in what the Postman (an old soldier) said in reply; that the sword has to cut a way for us out of many a scrape into which our bread-winners get us when they drive their ploughshares into fal- lows that don't belong to them. Indeed, whilst i5 JACKANAPES our most peaceful citizens were prosperous chiefly by means of cotton, of sugar, and of the rise and fall of the money market (not to speak of such salable matters as opium, firearms, and "black ivory"), disturbances were apt to arise in India, Africa, and other outlandish parts, where the fathers of our domestic race were making for- tunes for their families. And, for that matter, even on the Green, we did not wish the military to leave us in the lurch, so long as there was any fear that the French were coming. To let the Black Captain have little Miss Jessa- mine, however, was another matter. Her aunt would not hear of it; and then, to crown all, it appeared that the Captain's father did not think the young lady good enough for his son. Never was any affair more clearly brought to a con- clusion. But those were "trying times;" and one moonlight night, when the Gray Goose was sound asleep upon one leg, the Green was rudely shaken under her by the thud of a horse's feet. "Ga, ga!" said she, putting down the other leg, and running away. 16 JACKANAPES By the time she returned to her place not a thing was to be seen or heard. The horse had passed like a shot. But next day there was hurrying and skurrying and cackling at a very early hour, all about the white house with the black beams, where Miss Jessamine lived. And when the sun was so low and the shadows so long on the grass that the Gray Goose felt ready to run away at the sight of her own neck, little Miss Jane Johnson, and her "particular friend" Clarinda, sat under the big oak tree on the Green, and Jane pinched Clarinda 's little finger till she found that she could keep a secret, and then she told her in confidence that she had heard from Nurse and Jemima that Miss Jessamine's niece had been a very naughty girl, and that that horrid, wicked officer had come for her on his black horse, and carried her right away. "Will she never come back?" asked Clarinda. 1 ' Oh, no ! " said Jane, decidedly. ' ' Bony never brings people back." "Not never no more?" sobbed Clarinda, for she was weak-minded, and could not bear to think 2—Ja.i kanapes. I / JACKANAPES that Bony never, never let naughty people go home again. Next day Jane had heard more. "He has taken her to a Green ?" "A Goose Green!" asked Clarinda. "No. A Gretna Green. Don't ask so many questions, child," said Jane; who, having no more to tell, gave herself airs. Jane was wrong on one point. Miss Jessa- mine's niece did come back, and she and her husband were forgiven. The Gray Goose re- membered it well— it was Michaelmastide, the Michaelmas before the Michaelmas before the Michaelmas— but ga, ga! What does the date matter ? It was autumn, harvest-time, and every- body was so busy prophesying and praying about the crops, that the young couple wandered through the lanes, and got blackberries for Miss Jessamine's celebrated crab and blackberry jam, and made guys of themselves with bryony wreaths, and not a soul troubled his head about them, except the children and the Postman. The children dogged the Black Captain's foot- steps (his bubble reputation as an Ogre having 18 JACKANAPES burst), clamoring for a ride on the black mare. And the Postman would go somewhat out of his postal way to catch the Captain's dark eye, and show that he had not forgotten how to salute an officer. "'HE HAS TAKEN HER TO A GREEN.' " But they were "trying times." One afternoon the black mare was stepping gently up and down the grass, with her head at her master's shoulder, and as many children crowded on her silky back 19 JACKANAPES as if she had been an elephant in a menagerie; and the next afternoon she carried him away, sword and sabre-tacJie clattering war-music at her side, and the old Postman waiting for them, rigid with salutation, at the four crossroads. War and bad times! It was a hard winter, and the big Miss Jessamine and the little Miss Jessamine (but she was Mrs. Black-Captain now) lived very economically that they might help their poorer neighbors. They neither enter- tained nor went into company, but the young lady always went up the village as far as the " George and Dragon," for air and exercise, when the London Mail came in. One day (it was a day in the following June) it came in earlier than usual, and the young lady was not there to meet it. But a crowd soon gathered round the "George and Dragon," gaping to see the Mail Coach dressed with flowers and oak-leaves, and the guard wearing a laurel wreath over and above his royal livery. The ribbons that decked the horses were stained and flecked with the warmth and foam of the pace at which they had come, 20 JACKANAPES for they had pressed on with the news of Victory. r, Vu^- :< UNDER THE OAK TREE ON THE GREEN." Miss Jessamine was sitting with her niece nnder the oak tree on the Green, when the Post- 21 JACKANAPES man put a newspaper silently into her hand. Her niece tnrned quickly— fc "Is there news!" "Don't agitate yourself, my dear," said her aunt. "I will read it aloud, and then we can enjoy it together; a far more comfortable method, my love, than when you go up the vil- lage, and come home out of breath, having snatched half the news as you run." "I am all attention, dear aunt," said the little lady, clasping her hands tightly on her lap. Then Miss Jessamine read aloud— she was proud of her reading— and the old soldier stood at attention behind her, with such a blending of pride and pity on his face as it was strange to see:— "Downing Steeet, June 22, 1815, 1a.m." "That's one in the morning," gasped the Post- man; "beg your pardon, mum." But though he apologized, he could not refrain from echoing here and there a weighty word. "Glorious victory,"— " Two hundred pieces of 22 JACKANAPES artillery,"— "Immense quantity of ammunition, ' ' and so forth. "The loes of the British Army upon this occasion has unfor- tunately been most severe. It had not been possible to make out a return of the killed and wounded when Major Perry left head- quarters. The names of the officers killed and wounded, as far as they can be collected, are annexed. " 1 have the honor — — " 1 < The list, aunt ! Read the list ! ' ' "My love— my darling— let us go in and—" "No. Now! now!" To one thing the supremely afflicted are en- titled in their sorrow— to be obeyed— and yet it is the last kindness that people commonly will do them. But Miss Jessamine did. Steadying her voice, as best she might, she read on, and the old soldier stood bareheaded to hear that first Roll of the Dead at Waterloo, which began with the Duke of Brunswick and ended with Ensign Brown. Five-and-thirty British Captains fell asleep that day on the Bed of Honor, and the Black Captain slept among them. f 9F # # gp $fc ^F There are killed and wounded by war, of whom no returns reach Downing Street. 23 JACKANAPES Three days later, the Captain's wife had joined him, and Miss Jessamine was kneeling by the cradle of their orphan son, a purple-red morsel of humanity, with conspicuously golden hair. "Will he live, Doctor V 9 "Live? God bless my soul, ma'am! Look at him! The young Jackanapes !' ' 24 CHAPTER II THE Gray Goose remembered quite well the year that Jackanapes began to walk, for it was the year that the speckled hen for the first time in all her motherly life got out of patience when she was sitting. She had been rather proud of the eggs— they were unusually large— but she never felt quite comfortable on them; and whether it was because she used to get cramp, and go off the nest, or because the season was bad, or what, she never could tell, but every egg was addled but one, and the one that did hatch gave her more trouble than any chick she had ever reared. It was a fine, downy, bright yellow little thing, but it had a monstrous big nose and feet, and such an ungainly walk as she Tmew no other instance of in her well-bred and high-stepping family. And as to behavior, it was not that it 25 JACKANAPES was either quarrelsome or moping, but simply unlike the rest. When the other chicks hopped and cheeped on the Green about their mother's feet, this solitary yellow brat went waddling off on its own responsibility, and do or cluck what the speckled hen would, it went to play in the pond. It was off one day as usual, and the hen was fussing and fuming after it, when the Postman, going to deliver a letter at Miss Jessamine 's door, was nearly knocked over by the good lady her- self, who, bursting out of the house with her cap just off and her bonnet just not on, fell into his arms, crying: — "Baby! Baby! Jackanapes! Jackanapes ! ' ' If the Postman loved anything on earth, he loved the Captain's yellow-haired child, so prop- ping Miss Jessamine against her own door- post, he followed the direction of her trembling fingers and made for the Green. Jackanapes had had the start of the Postman by nearly ten minutes. The world— the round, green world with an oak tree on it— was just be- coming very interesting to him. He had tried, 26 JACKANAPES vigorously but ineffectually, to mount a passing pig the last time he was taken out walking; but then he was encumbered with a nurse. Now he "NOW HE WAS HIS OWN MASTER. was his own master, and might, by courage and energy, become the master of that delightful, downy, dumpy, yellow thing, that was bobbing 27 JACKANAPES along over the green grass in front of him. For- ward ! Charge ! He aimed well, and grabbed it, but only to feel the delicious downiness and dumpiness slipping through his fingers as he fell upon his face. "Quawk!" said the yellow thing, and wobbled off sideways. It was this oblique movement that enabled Jackanapes to come up with it, for it was bound for the Pond, and therefore obliged to come back into line. He failed again from top-heaviness, and his prey escaped sideways as before, and, as before, lost ground in getting back to the direct road to the Pond. And at the Pond the Postman found them both, one yellow thing rocking safely on the ripples that lie beyond duck-weed, and the other washing his draggled frock with tears, because he, too, had tried to sit upon the Pond, and it wouldn't hold him. 28 CHAPTER III YOUNG Mrs. Johnson, who was a mother of many, hardly knew which to pity more— Miss Jessamine, for having her little ways and her antimacassars rumpled by a young Jackanapes, or the boy himself, for being brought up by an old maid. Oddly enough, she would probably have pitied neither, had Jackanapes been a girl. (One is so apt to think that what works smoothest works to the highest ends, having no patience for the results of friction.) That Father in God, who bade the young men to be pure, and the maidens brave, greatly disturbed a member of his con- gregation, who thought that the great preacher had made a slip of the tongue. "That the girls should have purity, and the boys courage, is what you would say, good Father !" • 29 JACKANAPES "Nature has done that," was the reply; "I meant what I said." In good sooth, a young rnaid is all the better for learning some robuster virtues than maiden- liness and not to move the antimacassars. And the robuster virtues require some fresh air and freedom. As, on the other hand, Jackanapes (who had a boy's full share of the little beast and the young monkey in his natural composi- tion) was none the worse, at his tender years, for learning some maidenliness— so far as maiden- liness means decency, pity, unselfishness, and pretty behavior. And it is due to him to say that he was an obedient boy, and a boy whose word could be depended on, long before his grandfather, the General, came to live at the Green. He was obedient ; that is, he did what his great- aunt told him. But— oh, dear! oh, dear!— the pranks he played, which it had never entered into her head to forbid! It was when he had just been put into skele- tons (frocks never suited him) that he became very friendly with Master Tony Johnson, a 30 JACKANAPES younger brother of the young gentleman who sat in the puddle on purpose. Tony was not enter- prising, and Jackanapes led him by the nose. One summer's evening they were out late, and Miss Jessamine was becoming- anxious, when "VERY FRIENDLY WITH TONY JOHNSON." Jackanapes presented himself with a ghastly face all besmirched with tears. He was unusually subdued. "I'm afraid," he sobbed; "if you please, I'm very much afraid that Tony Johnson's dying in the churchyard." 3i JACKANAPES Miss Jessamine was just beginning to be dis- tracted, when she smelled Jackanapes. "You naughty, naughty boys! Do you mean to tell me you Ve been smoking?" "Not pipes," urged Jackanapes; "upon my honor, Aunty, not pipes. Only cigars, like Mr. Johnson's! and only made of brown paper with a very, very little tobacco from the shop inside them. ' ' Whereupon, Miss Jessamine sent a serv- ant to the churchyard, who found Tony Johnson lying on a tombstone, very sick, and having ceased to entertain any hopes of his own recovery. If it could be possible that any "unpleasant- ness" could arise between two such amiable neighbors as Miss Jessamine and Mrs. Johnson —and if the still more incredible paradox can be that ladies may differ over a point on which they are agreed— that point was the admitted fact that Tony Johnson was "delicate," and the differ- ence lay chiefly in this: Mrs. Johnson said that Tony was delicate— meaning that he was more finely strung, more sensitive, a properer subject 32 JACKANAPES for pampering and petting than Jackanapes, and that, consequently, Jackanapes was to blame for leading Tony into scrapes which resulted in his being chilled, frightened, or (most frequently) sick. But when Miss Jessamine said that Tony Johnson was delicate, she meant that he was more puling, less manly, and~ less healthily brought up than Jackanapes, who, when they got into mischief together, was certainly not to blame because his friend could not get wet, sit a kicking donkey, ride in the giddy-go-round, bear the noise of a cracker, or smoke brown paper with impunity, as he could. Not that there was ever the slightest quarrel between the ladies. It never even came near it, except the day after Tony had been so very sick with riding Bucephalus in the giddy- go-round. Mrs. Johnson had explained to Miss Jessamine that the reason Tony was so easily upset was the unusual sensitiveness (as a doctor had explained it to her) of the nervous centres in her family— "Fiddlestick!" So Mrs. Johnson understood Miss Jessamine to say, but it ap- peared that she only said " Treaclestick ! " which 3— Jackanapes. 33 JACKANAPES is quite another tiling, and of which Tony was undoubtedly fond. It was at the Fair that Tony was made ill by riding on Bucephalus. Once a year the Goose Green became the scene of a carnival. First of all, carts and caravans were rumbling up all along, day and night. Jackanapes could hear them as he lay in bed, and could hardly sleep for speculating what booths and whirligigs he should find fairly established, when he and his dog Spitfire went out after breakfast. As a matter of fact, he seldom had to wait so long for news of the Fair. The Postman knew the win- dow out of which Jackanapes 's yellow head would come, and was ready with his report. " Royal Theayter, Master Jackanapes, in the old place, but be careful o' them seats, sir; they 're rickettier than ever. Two sweets and a ginger-beer under the oak tree, and the Flying Boats is just a-coming along the road." No doubt it was partly because he had already suffered severely in the Flying Boats, that Tony collapsed so quickly in the giddy-go-round. He only mounted Bucephalus (who was spotted and 34 JACKANAPES had no tail) because Jackanapes urged him, and held out the ingenious hope that the round-and- round feeling would very likely cure the up-and- down sensation. It did not, however, and Tony tumbled off during the first revolution. "DURING THE FIRST ROUND HE WAVED HIS HAT." Jackanapes was not absolutely free from qualms, but having once mounted the Black Prince he stuck to him as a horseman should. During the first round he waved his hat, and observed with some concern that the Black Prince had lost an ear since last Fair; at the 35 JACKANAPES second, he looked a little pale, but sat upright, though somewhat unnecessarily rigid; at the third round he shut his eyes. During the fourth his hat fell off, and he clasped his horse's neck. By the fifth he had laid his yellow head against the Black Prince's mane, and so clung anyhow till the hobby-horses stopped, when the pro- prietor assisted him to alight, and he sat down rather suddenly and said he had enjoyed it very much. The Gray Goose always ran away at the first approach of the caravans, and never came back to the Green until there was nothing left of the Fair but footmarks and oyster-shells. Running away was her pet principle; the only system, she maintained, by which you can live long and easily, and lose nothing. If you run away when you see danger, you can come back when all is safe. Bun quickly, return slowly, hold your head high, and gabble as loud as you can, and you '11 preserve the respect of the Goose Green to a peaceful old age. Why should you struggle and get hurt, if you can lower your head and swerve, and not lose a feather! Why in the 36 JACKANAPES world should anyone spoil the pleasure of life, or risk his skin, if he can help it? "'What's the use?' Said the Goose.'" Before answering which, one might have to con- sider what world— which life— and whether his skin were a goose-skin; but the Gray Goose's head would never have held all that. Grass soon grows over footprints, and the vil- lage children took the oyster-shells to trim their gardens with; but the year after Tony rode Bucephalus there lingered another relic of Fair- time, in which Jackanapes was deeply interested. "The Green'' proper was originally only part of a straggling common, which in it's turn merged into some wilder waste land where gipsies some- times squatted if the authorities would allow them, especially after the annual Fair. And it was after the Fair that Jackanapes, out rambling by himself, was knocked over by the Gipsy's son riding the Gipsy's red-haired pony at break-neck pace across the common. » Jackanapes got up and shook himself, none the 37 JACKANAPES worse, except for being heels over head in love with the red-haired pony. What a rate he went at ! How he spurned the ground with his nimble feet! How his red coat shone in the sunshine! And what bright eyes peeped out of his dark fore- lock as it was blown by the wind! The Gipsy boy had had a fright, and he was willing enough to reward Jackanapes for not having been hurt, by consenting to let him have a ride. "Do you mean to kill the little fine gentleman, and swing us all on the gibbet, you rascal?" screamed the Gipsy-mother, who came up just as Jackanapes and the pony set off. "He would get on," replied her son. "It '11 not kill him. He '11 fall on his yellow head, and it's as tough as a cocoanut." But Jackanapes did not fall.' He stuck to the red-haired pony as he stuck to the hobby-horse; but oh! how different the delight of this wild gallop with flesh and blood! Just as his legs were beginning to feel as if he did not feel them, the Gipsy boy cried, "Lollo!" Round went the pony so unceremoniously, that, with as little cere- 38 J A C K A N A P E S mony, Jackanapes clung to his neck, and he did not properly recover himself before Lollo stopped with a jerk at the place where they had started. "Is his name Lollo?" asked Jackanapes, his hand lingering in the wiry mane. "Yes." "What does Lollo mean?" "Bed." "Is Lollo your pony?" "No. My father's." And the Gipsy boy led Lollo away. At the first opportunity Jackanapes stole away again to the common. This time he saw the Gipsy-father, smoking a dirty pipe. "Lollo is your pony, is n't he?" said Jacka- napes. "Yes." "He's a very nice one." "He's a racer." "You don't want to sell him, do you?" " Fifteen pounds," said the Gipsy-father; and Jackanapes sighed and went home again. That very afternoon he and Tony rode the two donkeys, and Tony managed to get thrown, and even 39 JACKANAPES Jackanapes' donkey kicked. But it was jolting, clumsy work after the elastic swiftness and the dainty mischief of the red-haired pony. A few days later, Miss Jessamine spoke very seriously to Jackanapes. She was a good deal agitated as he told him that his grandfather, the General, was coming to the Green, and that he must be on his very best behavior during the visit. If it had been feasible to leave off calling him Jackanapes and to get used to his baptismal name of Theodore before the day after to-morrow (when the General was due), it would have been satisfactory. But Miss Jessamine feared it would be impossible in practice, and she had scruples about it on principle. It would not seem quite truthful, although she had always most fully in- tended that he should be called Theodore when he had outgrown the ridiculous appropriateness of his nickname. The fact was that he had not outgrown it, but he must take care to remember who was meant when his grandfather said Theodore. Indeed, for that matter, he must take care all along. 40 JACKANAPES "You are apt to be giddy, Jackanapes," said Miss Jessamine. "Yes, Aunt," said Jackanapes, thinking of the hobby-horses. "You are a good boy, Jackanapes. Thank God, I can tell your grandfather that. An obedient boy, an honorable boy, and a kind-hearted boy. But you are— in short, you are a Boy, Jacka- napes. And I hope"— added Miss Jessamine, desperate with the results of experience— "that the General knows that Boys will be Boys." What mischief could be foreseen, Jackanapes promised to guard against. He was to keep his clothes and his hands clean, to look over his cate- chism, not to put sticky things in his pockets, to keep that hair of his smooth— ("It's the wind that blows it, Aunty," said Jackanapes — "I'll send by the coach for some bear's-grease, " said Miss Jessamine, tying a knot in her pocket- handkerchief)— not to burst in at the parlor door, not to talk at the top of his voice, not to crumple his Sunday frill, and to sit quite quiet during the sermon, to be sure to say "sir" to the General, to be careful about rubbing his shoes on the door- 4i JACKANAPES mat, and to bring his lesson-books to his aunt at once that she might iron down the dogs '-ears. The General arrived, and for the first day all went well, except that Jackanapes' hair was as wild as usual, for the hairdresser had no bear's- grease left. He began to feel more at ease with his grandfather, and disposed to talk confiden- tially with him, as he did with the Postman. All that the General felt it would take too long to tell, but the result was the same. He was disposed to talk confidentially with Jackanapes. "Mons'ous pretty place this," he said, looking out of the lattice onto the Green, where the Grass was vivid with sunset, and the shadows were long and peaceful. "You should see it in Fair-week, sir," said Jackanapes, shaking his yellow mop, and leaning back in his one of the two Chippendale arm- chairs in which they sat. "A fine time that, eh!" said the General, with a twinkle, in his left eye. (The other was glass.) Jackanapes shook his hair one more. "I en- joyed this last one the best of all," he said. "I 'd so much money. ' ' 42 JACKANAPES "By George, it 's not a common complaint in these bad times. How mnch had ye!" "I 'd two shillings. A new shilling Aunty gave me, and elevenpence I had saved up, and a penny " * YOU SHOULD SEE IT IN FAIR-WEEK, SIR from the Postman— sir!" added Jackanapes with a jerk, having forgotten it. "And how did ye spend it— sir?" inquired the General. 43 JACKANAPES Jackanapes spread his ten fingers on the arms of his chair, and shut his eyes that he might count the more conscientiously. "Watch-stand for Aunty, threepence. Trum- pet for myself, twopence, that's fivepence. Ginger-nuts for Tony, twopence, and a mug with a Grenadier on for the Postman, fourpence, that's elevenpence. Shooting-gallery, a penny, that's a shilling. Giddy-go-round, a penny, that's one and a penny. Treating Tony, one and twopence. Flying Boats (Tony paid for himself), a penny, one and threepence. Shooting-gallery again, one and fourpence. Fat Woman, a penny, one and fivepence. Giddy-go-round again, one and six- pence. Shooting-gallery, one and sevenpence. Treating Tony, and then he wouldn't shoot, so I did, one and eightpence. Living Skeleton, a penny— no, Tony treated me, the Living Skeleton doesn't count. Skittles, a penny, one and nine- pence. Mermaid (but when we got inside she was dead), a penny, one and tenpence. Theatre, a penny (Priscilla Partington, or the Green Lane Murder. A beautiful young lady, sir, with pink cheeks and a real pistol), that's one and eleven- 44 JACKANAPES pence. Ginger beer, a penny (I was so thirsty!) two shillings. And then the Shooting-gallery man gave me a turn for nothing, because, he said, I was a real gentleman, and spent my money like a man." 1 ' So yon do, sir, so yon do ! " cried the General. "Why, sir, yon spend it like a prince. And now I suppose you Ve not got a penny in your pocket?" "Yes, I have," said Jackanapes. "Two pennies. They are saving up." And Jacka- napes jingled them with his hand. "You don't want money except at fair-times, I suppose!" said the General. Jackanapes shook his mop. "If I could have as much as I want, I should know what to buy," said he. "And how much do you want, if you could get it?" "Wait a minute, sir, till I think what twopence from fifteen pounds leaves. Two from nothing you can't, but borrow twelve. Two from twelve, ten, and carry one. Please remember ten, sir, when I ask you. One from nothing you can't, 45 JACKANAPES borrow twenty. One from twenty, nineteen, and carry one. One from fifteen, fourteen. Four- teen pounds nineteen and— what did I tell you to remember ! ' ' ' ' Ten, ' ' said the General. "Fourteen pounds nineteen shillings and ten- pence, then, is what I want," said Jackanapes. "Bless, my soul, what for?" "To buy Lollo with. Lollo means red, sir. The Gipsy's red-haired pony, sir. Oh, he is beautiful! You should see his coat in the sun- shine! You should see his mane! You should see his tail! Such little feet, sir, and they go like lightning! Such a dear face, too, and eyes like a mouse! But he's a racer, and the Gipsy wants fifteen pounds for him." "If he's a racer, you couldn't ride him. Could you!" "No— o, sir, but I can stick to him. I did the other day." "You did, did you? Well, I'm fond of riding, myself, and if the beast is as good as you say, he might suit me. ' ' "You're too tall for Lollo, I think," said 46 JACKANAPES Jackanapes, measuring his grandfather with his eye. "I can double up my legs, I suppose. We'll have a look at him to-morrow. ' ' " Don't you weigh a good deal?" asked Jacka- napes. "Chiefly waistcoats," said the General, slap- ping the breast of his military frock-coat. ' ' We '11 have the little racer on the Green the first thing in the morning. Glad you mentioned it, grandson. Glad you mentioned it. ' ' The General was as good as his word. Next morning, the Gipsy and Lollo, Miss Jessamine, Jackanapes, and his Grandfather, and his dog, Spitfire, were all gathered at one end of the Green in a group, which so aroused the innocent curiosity of Mrs. Johnson, as she saw it from one of her upper windows, that she and the children took their early promenade rather earlier than usual. The General talked to the Gipsy, and Jackanapes fondled Lollo 's mane, and did not know whether he should be more glad or miser- able if his grandfather bought him. ' ' Jackanapes ! ' ' 47 JACKANAPES "Yes, sir!" "I've bought Lollo, but I believe you were right. He hardly stands high enough for me. If you can ride him to the other end of the Green, I '11 give him to you." How Jackanapes tumbled on to Lollo 's back he never knew. He had just gathered up the reins when the Gipsy-father took him by the arm. "If you want to make Lollo go fast, my little gentleman— " "Z can make him go!" said Jackanapes, and drawing from his pocket the trumpet he had bought in the fair, he blew a Wast both loud and shrill. Away went Lollo, and away went Jackanapes's hat. His golden hair flew out, an aureole from which his cheeks shone red and distended with trumpeting. Away went Spitfire, mad with the rapture of the race, and the wind in his silky ears. Away went the geese, the cocks, the hens, and the whole family of Johnson. Lucy clung to her mamma, Jane saved Emily by the gathers of her gown, and Tony saved himself by a somer- sault. 48 JACKANAPES The Gray Goose was just returning when Jackanapes and Lollo rode back, Spitfire panting behind. "Good, my little gentleman, good!" said the Gipsy. "You were born to the saddle. You've "